KANOWIT, Oct 9 (Bernama) -- Parti Rakyat Sarawak president Datuk Sri Dr James Jemut Masing maintained that the party would nominate its own candidate for the Kanowit parliamentary seat in the next general election.

He said that if anyone wished to be nominated, he should first be a party member.

He said that in the May 2006 state election, the state Barisan Nasional (BN) supreme council had decided that all seats belonging to the deregistered Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) would be given to PRS as its successor.

"We are claiming the Kanowit parliamentary seat based on this decision," he said after returning from a development dialogue with longhouse folk from the Sungai Menalun area yesterday.

The seat is currently represented by Aaron Dagang who stood on a PBDS ticket before the party was deregistered for the second time in October 2004, after the general election.

Dr Masing said he expected all the BN component parties to abide strictly by the BN understanding and laws on seat allocation.

On his own position, he said he was still the president of PRS although another faction within it had elected Pelagus state assemblyman Larry Sng Wei Shien as their president.

He said he had the support of eight out of the 10 PRS elected representatives compared to Larry who had only Sri Aman MP Jimmy Donald on his side.